Google NYC Tightens Their Belt

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Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) speaks at the official opening of the new Google office space inside the historic Chelsea Market.

Updated at 2:00 PM EST on Wednesday, Oct 29, 2008

The lowest low of our economic downturn is finally upon us, and the death zone is no longer Wall Street, but 76th 9th Ave., the offices of GoogleNYC. Googlers, who for years have enjoyed their precious free lunches, received a memo Wednesday from an HR wonk announcing the company had to make some changes.

Namely, "In New York City, our food service team has closely examined cafe usage, food consumption and labor costs to find areas where efficiency can be improved without compromising food quality and nutrition." This isn't the first time, either. A little over a week ago, Google announced the shut-down of one of their 18 cafes at the Google campus in Mountain View, CA. This time it seems the Google execs have set their eyes on the well-fed, over-worked employees of Google NYC. The cuts are most likely related to the slowing ad industry, which is in part, due to the ever-declining click through rates and overall belt-tightening of brands.

But really, there's no one to blame but ourselves. Take comfort knowing that every time you choose not to click on a banner, someone at Google goes unfed. Now, they'll have to eat at Chipotle's with the rest of us! But is that so bad? I recommend the salad - even without the burrito wrap it still stretches the belt.